2007-2010

Menu

Election eve fluff

Election jitters: I’ve got ’em. This NYT article cracked me up, because I too am totally having magical thinking about accidentally jinxing the election. I’ve got stuff to be doing today, but my ability to concentrate is, shall we say, impaired. I find that looking at Yes We Can Hold Babies wards off some of my nerves.

No early voting here. I’ve got a big fat book. But I’ll also be phoning for MoveOn tonight. Distract myself? I’m using my jitters.

I’m also going to Florida Wednesday, so Tuesday night I’ll finish packing while listening to election returns. I’ll also switch back and forth between news and Mad Men on DVR, so I can get caught up with my episode recapping.

I’m glad I voted early, so I can sit at home chewing my nails with nerves all day tomorrow. Thinking that I might engage in a little impromptu get out the vote action in my notoriously unreliable age demographic.

If I were going to a polling place tomorrow, I would totally be bringing snacks and a book! Looks like lines will be long indeed.

I’m reading conspiracy theories about how Obama never graduated from Columbia but insetad had the Weather Underground forge a transcript for him to send to Harvard Law School.

Okay, I guess that doesn’t count as distracting myself. Tonight I’m going to make election themed cupcakes, though – nonpartisan ones to take to work and possibly also Obama logo ones to take to the election party.

I already voted, which gives me such a feeling of helplessness. Is it too late to donate to certain campaigns??? OMG what if I haven’t done enough? Yes, I will eat some more Halloween candy, thank you!

I already voted (absentee, thank goodness, the lines for early voting were 2 blocks long yesterday!) so I have just tuned out. I’m just too burnt out on election news and discussion. Tomorrow I will be getting tattooed, and then heading to my parent’s election night party to either celebrate or to drown my sorrows.

That way, I can concentrate on pulling a Florence Nightengale for our roommate who had to have septoplasty, turbinate reduction and adenoidectomy. Wow is there a lot of blood and gauze changing. I don’t want to say “thank the 12 gods for his crappy bone structure”, but at least it is something else to think about!

I already voted. I’m working today and tomorrow, although I’m obsesseing over the election in spare moments (like this one). Tonight I canvass, and tomorrow I’ll be pitching in for the campaign before and after work. I have a feeling I’ll end up in “comfort” after work. That’s getting snacks and water to folks stuck in line in key precincts. Dare I hope that we can turn Georgia blue? Can’t think about that. Must get back to work.

I voted on Friday. Now I just need to wait for them to *count* the votes. So far, at least 30,000 people have voted in my city, and they don’t have the tallies in from Sunday and Monday’s early voting yet. Total population is 220k, so a lot of people are voting early. In 2004, only 25k voted early.

Now to head out for more cream and to drop off the grocery money at the bank…

As of tomorrow at 5:30 a.m., there is no distraction. I signed up for a 14 hour day at a regional Obama HQ. But at least I’ll be doing something besides chewing my fingernails. That would be unproductive.

I sent in my absentee ballot about two weeks ago. Because of the time difference, I will be going to TRY to go to bed REALLY early tomorrow night so I can get up and start obsessively watching results shortly after polls start closing, if I can find a place online to do so (it SUCKS living outside the country sometimes. Not often, but sometimes…). If I get too jittery, I have imported betty crocker yellow cake mix and chocolate frosting, and I might make cupcakes. Of course, my husband will NOT appreciate me making them when he’s got the flu instead of waiting until he’s better…

Until then, I’m using Metin 2 (MMORPG) to distract myself, playing with my brother who’s still in the US.

I am so incredibly nervous, good lord. I voted back in early October, so now it’s just a matter of distracting myself. Thankfully, the show I’m assistant stage-managing for is loading in the set today, and starting tech rehearsals. And the theater gets basically no cell or wifi service. Since I’m spending most of my time in the theater, I’m prevented from constantly checking blogs and polls and everything. It’s a good thing. (Though one cast member, a smoker, intends to give us updates on Tuesday every time he goes outside for a smoke. Thank god, because we’re all going to be nervous as fuck not knowing how things are going down.)

I voted early, so that’s over with. And since I forgot to take the fact that I have election day off into account when figuring out my workload for the week, I am totally up against a deadline now, so that’s (kind of) distracting me today.

My magical thinking is taking the form of ACTION. I phone banked through Planned Parenthood, canvassed through my union, and Tuesday I’m taking the (really, gawd-awful) early shift at the Election Protection* hotline. Also I refuse to make any definitive statements about my opinions on the outcome of the election.

866-OUR-VOTE. Tell EVERYBODY YOU KNOW to call if they see or experience any problems at the polls.

I’m doing NaNoWriMo, and I start a brand new job tomorrow (for which I have to go and fill out paperwork today). You’d think that would be enough to keep me from obsessing and fretting and checking the polls constantly, but somehow it’s not. I even had a dream about the election last night, and I never dream about anything that realistic. Actually the new job is probably heightening my anxiety more than it’s distracting me. I’m going to be a walking nervous breakdown all day tomorrow. :/

I just hope I can get to sleep tonight so I can get up on time tomorrow, and then I hope I can take a nap when my EP hotline shift is done so I can make it through the huge Obama rally at Grant Park (I got a ticket! Squeeeeeeeee! It’s going to be crowded and awful but I’m going anyway fuck it!!)

I’m Dutch, still living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, so unfortunately, I don’t get to vote. :(
On Tuesday evening (local time) when the voting will start. I and several expats I know will be going to Boom Chicago’s “Bye Bye Bush” show followed by an all nighter where we will be following the elections, and hopefully celebrate the outcome the following morning.
I hope the results will be clear this time.

I actually have butterflies in my stomach. I have *never* felt that way before an election. I am thinking hard physical labor will help distract me — I have some outdoor garden work that desperately needs doing. Also, I am going to make a banana cream pie. And play guitar hero with my kids. I think I need to make a list — I can already tell that that’s not going to be enough, this day is going to drag along so slowly. It’s like the day before Christmas!

I’m planning on a long day in line. Our boss is really cool — he is letting us vote during the day. The last time I voted in a big election at night they ran out of ballots and those of us who voted on ad hoc xeroxed ballots never did get our votes counted. So now I try to vote in the morning if I can.

I find living in the Netherlands helps. But even we get a lot of news about the elections, so much that I wish I could vote and actually make a difference in the fate of the world; and I’m frustrated that I can’t.

I am another one of those people that is not a US citizen (and I also live in Amsterdam like Robbert, although I am actually German) – so no voting for me. And just like the Bald Soprano said, living on the other side of the Atlantic ocean during US election time is hard. Like many other non-American citizens I am really anxious about the outcome of this election a) because it will have huge global impact and b) because I spent the best year of my life in the US and although I haven’t lleft Europe for over six years I still think of Wichita, Kansas as a kind of second home (and that although my political and religious beliefs clash with the beliefs of the majority of people there).
Oh well… I will probably check the news somtime in the middle of the night and go back to bed afterwards.

Crocheting–it’s impossible to check pollster.com every 5 minutes while both hands and both eyes are on crochet. I still check it hourly, though.

Shamelessly wearing four pieces of Obama swag simultaneously–I was keeping to one or two per day for October, but it’s the day before the election, I’m wearing it all.

Thinking of what kind of cookies to bake for people standing in line to vote tomorrow–probably going to take my kids along after school, to help pass them out, along with bottles of water, non-political magazines to read, whatever, we’ll load up the little red wagon and walk over to the neighborhood polling place. And if there are leftover cookies, they’re for celebrating, or a full-blown freak-out, if we slip into the parallel universe where Obama doesn’t win. Either way, there will be cookies.

Voted early, phone banking, donating, and talking with family & friends & strangers all weekend/today, going to nearby swing state NH tomorrow at the crack of dawn to volunteer at the polls (& getting people to them) all day tomorrow, then back home to watch TV while gauging out my own eyeballs with my chewed fingernails.

Already voted. Because it was absentee, I constantly worry that my ballot was lost in the mail. I also know that if the WA issues that I care about don’t go my way, I’ll blame my ballot getting lost in the mail, and here in CA if Prop 8 and Prop 4 actually pass, I’ll get pissed at myself for not changing my registration to vote locally.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

I’m going to be in class tomorrow evening, and I’m going to be texting ChaCha about every two minutes to find out where things are, and if I find something out, good or bad, during class, I’m afraid I’ll burst into tears in front of everyone.

I’m talking all of my friends into voting, and trying to warn them about lines, and just generally getting way too worked up.

I also keep getting mad at myself for not being able to do more. I don’t have a car and have class every day, so without a car the travel time to different places means I can’t go volunteer. I’ve donated but…if things don’t work out…

Like there’s an Obama/No on 8 rally in downtown LA today, with a bunch of people marching to City Hall, and I can’t be there because I have no way of getting there (it’s only about 15 miles, but taking the bus there takes like 2 hours). I wish I knew a few more politically inclined people here, who I could carpool with.

I’m avoiding election mayhem as completely as possible – I voted well over a week ago, thank goodness for early voting. CO has a LONG ballot this time, and I know not everyone is going to walk in with a crib sheet. Even with one, it took longer than expected just to work the electronic machine and verify the print out.

Interesting discovery — looks like I CAN wear my Obama button while voting in Maryland, and the fact that my middle name is misspelled on my voter registration card is not reason enough for them to turn me away. Also I can mark up my sample ballot ahead of time and take it into the booth with me.

I’m with you on the “wishing I could do more” thing. I have a terrible fear of talking to strangers… like, it’s visceral and usually leads to vomiting and the like. So everytime the local Obama office asks me to phone bank I feel like a huge bum. I brought my dad and step-mom into the Obama fold, though… so surely that counts for something?

I don’t have anxiety or worry, whatever happens happens. If my candidate wins then yay He and his wonderful VP will do a great job to the best of their abilities. If they don’t win then the other guy does and people will finally see that Him and his VP were not the idealic political God’s they were made out to be and I can giggle a happy I told you so.

Either way the world will not end, my life won’t be over, and regardless of the outcome I will still struggle with the same things, deal with many of the same issues, and regardless of the outcome there will be more obstacles thrown in my way.

Neither choice will be the miracle cure, neither will fix everything that is wrong with the world, as they are simply humans. Just like their predecessors didn’t CAUSE the problems, even though we certainly like to pin all our ails on them, they will not be the magical pill to make utopia come.

If my candidate doesn’t win I won’t spend days curled up bawling in bed, I won’t feel my life is over, or begin planning my great escape, the only reason that I would be considering moving back up to Canada is because I miss my family and friends.

All in all I feel total peace and so tomorrow will be nothing big.. the only thing I will do differently is try to avoid all the freaking out and hysteria that I predict will be blasted at us by the media. So I plan on continuing to work on my work projects, make my dentist appointment, do the oh so fun housework, and hopefully if the day is nice I will get to sit outside and read my book for a while.

I have about as much anxiety over whether the stuff I work with will survive tomorrow (I’m a web server administrator for sites that do political commentary) as I do about the election results. Cake wrecks is helping me through this rough time.

I have about as much anxiety over whether the stuff I work with will survive tomorrow (I’m a web server administrator for sites that do political commentary) as I do about the election results. Cake wrecks is helping me through this rough time.

I work at ChaCha.com, and technically all workers are supposed to be able to choose their own hours, but they sent out an e-mail basically begging everyone to log in tomorrow and work.

Luckily for me, I’m not a guide. I’m an expediter. So my work will be a little bit easier.

Wales. If McCain wins, I’m moving to Wales. They shoot Doctor Who there. And they have universal health care, so even if I’m homeless, I won’t have to worry about dying of scurvy (or whatever). And I hear the people there are very nice.

Failing that, Sweden. I have a couple online friends from Sweden. They tell me that it’s very nice, if cold. And they supposedly have a lot of women in office.

If the candidate I think will be a disaster for the US and the world wins, I am moving to either Toronto or Halifax.

This will be very very complicated financially and personally, because of my elderly, ill dad–I don’t quite know how we’ll be able to swing it, because he doesn’t have enough money to meet the Canadian immigration requirements, and he really needs me to be supervising his healthcare.

But I am not planning to stay in a US that enshrines prejudice and discrimination as a matter of law. Or one that does not maintain the separation of church and state.

I’m actually surprisingly not anxious. I have a PhD in the kind of so-much-math-it-might-as-well-be-economics political science, and I can promise everyone that Nate Silver knows his shit cold. Those are reliable, well-done statistics. His methodology is *sound*. I promise.

On the other hand, I have a paper due by midnight, and I wonder why I haven’t been able to work on it at all…. Writing an article was my distraction plan, but that’s failing miserably. :(

I’m watching episode after episode of The West Wing (box set was my birthday gift last week) with a box of kleenex and a cup of tea.

I should be working on endless homework or studying, especially since I’ll be at an election results party tomorrow night, and likely a little hungover (a hangover for happy reasons, please goddess) on Wednesday. Oh well, there’s always Thursday.

Sad news, y’all: Obama’s grandmother died today. I can’t imagine what today and tomorrow are going to be like for him.

Oh no. That is so sad, and now of all times. I hope the people who loved her can find peace, and that if there’s an afterlife, she’s allowed to watch the election from there and that the end of it will make her smile.

CordyQ, I let out a cheer for your post. Elections are important, but neither this nor any single election has the power, by itself, to bring the entire free world to a crashing halt.

It’s too bad the Dalai Lama is already busy being a political and religious leader in exile, or maybe I’d write-in for him. As it is I am cool with the Green Party. For now. Until they invent the We Agree With Everything Sugar Wants Politically Party.

I’ve been a bit of a wreck. What I’m doing is this… reading the fatosphere feed, thinking about blogging (nonpolitically), snacking on leftover halloween candy, checking fivethirtyeight.com.
I actually did manage to get some small amount of work done today.
I am avoiding my family because I’m snippy.
That I’m menstrual also isn’t helping.
Fillyjonk has the right idea.

Drinking, indeed, Fillyjonk. Tomorrow night, either at a Drinking Liberally party or at a friend’s house. I’ve already decided that I don’t care about going to either of my Wednesday classes, as I intend to have either the Hangover of Triumph or the Hangover of Despair.